"Mm… God, you make me want to scr-ugh!"

"Relax, Zero. Damn, you're tight."

"Well… ah… damn…"

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"I don't know… Is… is that your cell phone?"

"… Aw, Christ…"

The sheets rustled as I clambered out of bed and reached for my ringing phone. "What do you want, Cross? I'm a little busy here," I growled.

"Oh, sorry to interrupt you. What were you doing?" Cross' voice replied.

"Um…" My mind drew a blank as I thought of a story to tell him, but my brain failed me.

"It's okay; you don't have to tell me. I was wondering if you could come down to a new crime scene to look at something. Do you mind?"

I stifled back a gasp as Kaname came up behind me and suckled the nape of my neck. "Um… yeah, sure, I'll… aah… When should I come bynyah…?"

"Well, the forensics team is still not done with identifying the body, so they asked the Hunter's Association not to come out until later. I was thinking about headin' out, oh, noonish."

"Sure, yeah. I'll, uh… meet you at headquarters…"

I flipped the phone shut as Kaname pulled back from my neck. "What did he want?" he whispered into my ear.

"They found a body; Cross wants me to come by and look at it," I replied as I set my phone on silent and tossed it on the bedside table. "He wants me there around noon."

"What time is it?"

"About eight thirty."

Kaname chuckled lightly as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in. "Then you've got time. You can go back to bed for another hour or two."

"No, I should really be getting ready," I replied as I tried to wriggle out of his tight hold. He wasn't letting got and decided it would be entertaining to breathe down my spine and nibble along my neck. "Oh… fine…"

(Hello again everyone! Your favorite pair has returned for another exciting, suspenseful story! Thanks again for reading and hope you enjoy!)

"Kiyruu-kun, I'm glad you were able to show up."

I looked up as I hastily tightened my belt. "Yeah, sorry I'm late. I got a little side tracked," I replied.

Cross nodded. "I can tell. When did your pants get so long?" he asked.

Looking down, I chuckled nervously to myself when I noticed how my pants now billowed at my ankles. These weren't my pants; they were Kaname's. "Like I said, I got a little side tracked," I stated, sitting at the desk opposite him. "So, watcha got?

"A body was found this morning, or rather, what was left of it," Cross answered as he handed me the file. "Strange thing is we can't identify the body; it has no outward traits and the flesh has been completely cleaned off."

The crime scene photos were enough to make me hurl. "Oh God… what the hell could do such a thing?" I asked.

Cross leaned back in his chair and sighed. "That's what we're trying to figure out. No evidence points to the murderer being a vampire."

My brow rose. "Then why do we have this case to begin with?"

A smile spread on his face. "It piqued my interest!"

"You… you're sick." I closed the file and slapped it back down on his desk. "I'm not taking the case until there is proof that can connect this murder to vampires. This is a Vampire Hunters' Association, not the FBI," I stated.

"But…"

"Case closed. Hand it over to the Special Forces in Tokyo; they'll do a better job than us."

"Kiryuu-kun… I can't give the case over," Cross said in a low tone.

I glared at him from over my shoulder. "Why not? It's out of our hands," I replied.

"You failed to let me finish. So far, the forensics team has been able to identify a distinct feature about our victim: fangs. I do believe this puts the ball in our court."

"Well, we can't do much until the body has been identified," I said, picking up the file again. "Aren't we gonna go to the scene now?"

"Yeah," the man replied as he stood and pulled his hair back in a ponytail. "On the other hand, I want to know how you and Kaname are coming along."

"Can it."

Cross' eyes brimmed with tears. "Wha-? I'm your adoptive father! I should know how my son's love life is!"

I slapped the file across his face, yelling, "My love life doesn't concern you!"

"… so cruel…" the Chairman whimpered.

My eyes narrowed as I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the office. "Come on, let's get this case done and over with."

(It's off to the crime scene! Sorry this chapter has so many jumps…)

We got to the scene around two; traffic had been really bad, and, on top of that, we had to explain to the cops that although I was a minor, I had been assigned to the case.

"You don't look much older than seventeen; are you sure you're on the case?" the cop asked.

"Yeah, it's my case. What of my age?" I questioned back, raising my brow.

The guy scratched the back of his neck. "You seem awful young to be going into the field. Can you handle the blood?"

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end at the question. "Dude, I've killed more criminals than you've banged your wife. I think I can handle this."

He quickly shut up, his face turning a fierce red as he stepped out of my way. "The body's in there," he stammered, pointing to the abandoned warehouse.

I ducked below the caution tape and strode up to the old building. "Man, what a stereotyped place for a murder," I said to myself.

"I know; just looking at this place gives me the creeps," Cross replied.

The warehouse was teeming with forensics people and cops. Little red markers were placed here and there on what appeared to be valuable evidence. There, in the center of the room, was the mutilated body; well, skeleton, more like. It hung by the ankles from chains that rain up to the ceiling, and the neck had been partly severed from the spine. Like Cross had said, all the flesh had been stripped clean off, but it was evident on the bones what really happened.

"These are teeth marks," I commented, bending down close to the skeleton and looking over it.

"How do you know that?" Cross asked.

I took a bony hand in mine, looking over the wear and tear of the decay. "I'm no anthropologist, but these look like teeth marks. See? Enlarged canine teeth would fit in these two spaces."

"Enlarged canines? Like fangs?"

Taking a step back, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. "Wow, this forensics team sucks if I was able to figure out that this person was eaten alive… this is the work of a vampire, though I don't know why he didn't just suck their blood instead of eating this poor person…"

Cross shook his head. "I've never heard of this before… a vampire eating one of his own? This is strange…"

I looked back to him, my eyes narrowed. "Is there some kind of ancient ritual? A ceremony that purebloods would participate in that required this?" I asked.

"No… none that I am aware of, but my research only goes back as far as the eighteenth century. You might want to ask Kaname; only purebloods will know of something like this… something… dark…"

With a heavy sigh, I looked back to the body. "Well… let's hope we don't have any more bodies show up."